Mediterranean, three services, no fuss
The Villa Chef
The all rounder of the summer season: shops at the market, cooks lunch for twelve and dinner for sixteen, and makes it look like nothing happened.
Skills
What the job actually demands
- Shopping at an unfamiliar market on day one
- Cooking for children at six and adults at nine without cooking twice
- Scaling a menu up by four guests at four in the afternoon
- Working in 34 degrees without a hood
Watch out
The warning sign
Chefs whose portfolio is entirely restaurant plating. A villa week is logistics and volume, and a tweezers background does not predict it.
Trial
How to audition one
Ask for a three day sample week plan with the shopping list and the food cost per head. The answer tells you more than a tasting menu would.
Ask these five questions
Before you book
- How do you plan a week for twelve with one market visit a day?
- What do you cook on the evening the guests come back late from the beach?
- What is your food cost per person per day, and what does it buy?
- Which equipment do you bring and what must the house provide?
- How do you handle the children’s meals?
Questions hosts ask
Can one chef cook three services a day for twelve?
For a few days, yes. For a week it produces a tired breakfast and a tired chef. Budget one hand above ten guests or two services.
Do they shop or do we?
They shop, with a budget per person per day and receipts. A chef who shops cooks what was good that morning, which is the point of the format.
Formats
Where this profile fits
Format
A chef for the week, not the eveningVilla Residency
Breakfast, lunch, dinner and the shopping, for a house of eight to sixteen, for five to ten days.
Read on
Format
One table, eighteen people, no wallsGarden Long Table
The format everyone photographs: one long table, family service, a fire or a grill and a dessert that does not mind waiting.
Read on
Format
Boat, vineyard, mountain, bonnet of a carThe Travelling Lunch
Lunch where there is no kitchen at all: a boat, a vineyard row, a mountain hut, a beach at the end of a track.
Read onMenus
What they cook
Menu
Cold, sharp, no ovenThe Mediterranean Raw Bar
The summer answer to a kitchen you cannot use: raw fish, marinated prawns, tomatoes that need nothing, citrus, oil and salt.
Read on
Menu
One fish, one table, one knifeWhole Fish in a Salt Crust
A three kilo fish in a salt crust, cracked open at the table.
Read on
Menu
Vegetables first, meat optionalThe Summer Garden Menu
A vegetable led dinner where nothing feels like a substitution: charred hearts, raw and pickled elements, a grain, a whole roasted centrepiece, and cheese or fish for the guests who want it..
Read onMarkets
Where to find them
Market
A short, expensive season with the best private chefs per square kilometreIbiza
Ten weeks of the year Ibiza hosts more private dinners per head than anywhere in the Mediterranean, and the island’s chefs have built a trade around fincas with no kitchen and guests who arrive at eleven..
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Market
Nine months of outdoor dinners and a staff pool that speaks four languagesMarbella
The Costa del Sol has the longest outdoor dining season in Europe, villas built for entertaining and prices a third below the French coast.
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Market
The most expensive kitchen logistics in EuropeCôte d’Azur
Between Saint Tropez and Monaco the season is eight weeks long, the villas are spectacular and every supplier knows it.
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Market
Villas, olive trees and a food culture that needs no helpTuscany
Tuscany gives you the best produce to price ratio in Europe, villas built for thirty at one table and a trade that understands weddings better than anywhere on this list..
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